Northern Mariana Islands to debut

Last update The 14/09/2012 at 22:32 - Published on 14/09/2012 at 21:02

By Reuters - The 14/09/2012 at 22:32

The Northern Mariana Islands will compete in the AFC Challenge Cup, the first tournament for the tiny Pacific Ocean country.

The team are one of 20 emerging Asian sides that will go into the qualifying draw for the eight team finals in 2014, with the victors earning the right to take on the region's heavyweights at the 2015 Asian Cup in Australia.

The Northern Mariana Islands only became a full member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in 2010 and are not one of the 209 member associations of world governing body FIFA.

Most of the population of approximately 50,000 on the 14 islands that make up the country are obsessed with baseball because of their links with the United States but efforts to promote an interest in football have been intensified.

The country took part in the AFC under-14 football festival in China earlier this year and have been approved to be recipients of the AFC's financial assistance program.